Skepticism

EVENTS

Help!

Y’all know we’re getting sued by Richard Carrier because we thought a woman who accused him of harassment ought to be listened to, and because we had the temerity to question his use of professional meetings as open meat markets, right? We need your help now. He’s demanding over $2 million dollars for damages to his professional reputation (trust us, we know: you can be accused of all kinds of dubious ethical problems and still have a thriving career on the atheist lecture circuit*, unfortunately, so this is kind of a weird complaint), and we’ve had to throw tens of thousands of dollars at a lawyer to defend ourselves.

None of us are exactly wealthy, so this is unsupportable, and we are reaching out to our readers for assistance, with a GoFundMe site for donations.

This lawsuit has all the hallmarks of a SLAPP suit — a lawsuit filed to stifle legitimate criticism and commentary. The named defendants are Skepticon, The Orbit, and Freethought Blogs – as well as individuals Lauren Lane, the lead organizer of Skepticon; Stephanie Zvan, a blogger for The Orbit; PZ Myers, a blogger for Freethought Blogs; and Amy Frank-Skiba, who publicly posted her first-hand allegations against Carrier.

We need your help to keep our voices alive. All the defendants are represented by the same attorney, First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza. Randazza is providing his services at a significant discount, but we are not asking him to work for free. Plus, there are thousands of dollars in “costs” for the case that don’t include legal bills, and there is no way to discount those. In order to continue fighting this lawsuit, we, the defendants of this case, have put together this campaign to raise money to defray our costs, some of which is outstanding. Donations will be used only for this case. In the event that the funds raised exceed our legal bills, they will be donated to Planned Parenthood .

I’ve been fortunate in the past that the loons who’ve threatened to sue me have tended to collapse at the prospect of defending their absurdities, and their already compromised reputations, in court. This one is sufficiently self-righteous that he’s continued on, to the point where we really need to bring in a professional to fight for us, and a good lawyer is not cheap. Every penny will be deeply appreciated.

*Sadly, the one thing that can cut short your career in atheism is criticizing harassers. Deep down, it’s all very tribal and the one thing you must never do is challenge authority.

Sent you a check for $100 care of Skepticon, who has not yet cashed the check I sent them as well for legal expenses. If they get the check to you I promised another donation to them. Please let me know. Will try to work up courage to give online if my effort did not work. In any case, please contact me for emergency assistance for any reason. I will help.

PZ, The GoFundMe page says the money will go directly to Stephanie. I don’t know anything about her, except what I read here. Is there a way I can send money to you, and let you figure out how to divide it between all the respondents to the lawsuit?

No, Stephanie is just administering it all. The money is going straight to our lawyer, she is just the middleperson — we had to designate somebody to be the recipient, and Jason did all the technical work of wrestling with the gofundme platform, while she was willing to be the accountant.

This is a joint effort, since ALL of us are being targeted by the lawsuit.

The suit is currently filed in Ohio, which does not have anti-SLAPP laws. Our lawyer is currently trying to get it changed as a first step — Carrier moved to Ohio right about the time he filed the suit, so it seems a little devious.

We’re not planning a counter-suit yet — I’d prefer to just have it all go away. Any excess would go to PP, but ‘winnings’ are unlikely, since Carrier has also declared that he’s getting by on a poverty-level income.

The first thing any competent lawyer lawyer will do is run a background check on Carrier, and see if Carrier is really as poor as he pretends. I don’t think he is, but then I don’t believe anything he says at this point in time without third party evidence….

Considering who has just taken over essentially all three branches of the federal dalekcracy, such a law would probably be something like “If you cannot pay and are not the suing party, you loose. If you sue the dalekcracy or anyone who is a member of, or designated by, the dalekcracy (including retrospective designations), you loose. If your are sued but your defense is not approved by the dalekcracy in advance of the lawsuit being filed, you loose. Losers must forfeit all property before paying. Losers who do not pay must be mooslins and are expelled immediately.”

So when’s he going to sue himself for damaging his reputation? Because, frankly, every time I’ve seen him react to this stuff, it’s damaged my opinion of him far more than what he was being criticised for.

Unfortunately, I’m CFO at Hard Up Industries, based in Skinterton, Brokeshire right now, but I’ll throw something your way when I’m next paid, in precisely 7 days (+/- a couple of hours – I’ll probably still be at work this time next week).